it could be argued that it wasn't the drugs that turned Colombia into a lawless battlefield, it was the War on Drugs. It wasn't alcohol that created Al Capone, bootlegging, and organized crime in the US. It was Prohibition.

The Andean natives chewed coca leaves to help them survive their harsh climate for thousands of years, but it wasn't until cocaine
became popular with US consumers, and then it became against the law, that the huge profits materialized that made the criminal cartels not only possible, but inevitable.

No one is saying drugs are good, or that we should use drugs. This is especially true of the addictive ones. The non-addictive (like cannabis and the psychedelics), or partially addictive ones (like alcohol) will always be controlled by free market forces. Note how cannabis prices have dropped (and quality and variety increased) in Colorado. No one is going to pay top dollar for something they can wait for that can be easily purchased cheaper down the street. In fact, illicit drugs is one of the few free markets still left--except where addiction or police interference drives prices, and profits, up. To paraphrase the NRA, when drugs are illegal only addicts and criminals will have drugs.

Alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and opioids have been around for thousands of years. None of them were a criminal issue until they were criminalized! In other parts of the world, the locals all have their plant or product they use to get high. Addiction has also been around forever, but it has never reached the levels it has recently. And why?

There is room for all sorts of difference of opinion about how to deal with drugs and addiction, but it should be clear by now that simply making it against the law just doesn't work. In fact, that's exactly what the traffickers want.

Historical Note: When European traders found that there was really no market for any of their goods in China, they introduced a very profitable one: opium from Turkey (where it was well-known but not really a problem). The Chinese had no culture inoculation against this poison, and it became a severe and widespread social problem. The Chinese have never forgiven us for this.

And remember, European Mercantilistic Capitalism, Imperialism and colonialism were to a great extent financed by the drug trade (although we didn't call them drugs): spices, tea, coffee, cocoa, are consumable substances with little or no nutritional value, just "habits"; and in the Americas we had cane sugar, rum (a compact way of cheaply transporting sugar) and tobacco. Just think, the founding fathers (especially the ones from the Southern colonies)were the drug lords of their time.